It goes without saying that she was usually caught immediately and tagged very often, and I scarcely ever; it therefore fell out that it was almost always her turn to chase me, and she did it desperately.

We struck the table with our bodies, and yelled, and carried on our play with the greatest imaginable uproar.

We succeeded in turning up the rugs, in disarranging the chairs, and in making havoc of everything.

We soon tired of our play, however,--the truth is I was too old to care greatly for such frolics.
I had scarcely any feeling save one of melancholy in spite of the wild sport I indulged in, for over me hovered the chilling thought that in the morning the usual round of dry and laborious lessons would begin.
My furious revel was simply a way of prolonging that day of truce, of making it count to its very last moment; it was an attempt to divert my thoughts by making plenty of noise.

It was also my way of hurling a defiance at those tasks that I had left undone.